Re-examining the Marxist View of the Masses: From the Dissolution of Fetishism to the Generation of Intersubjectivity

Historical materialism holds that the masses of the people are the true subjects who create history and the fundamental force driving historical development. However, under the dominance of the capitalist mode of production, this truth is deeply obscured by commodity fetishism. Fetishism is not a simple cognitive error but an inevitable manifestation of capitalist social relations — in commodity exchange, the real social relations between people are concealed and replaced by the illusory relations between things, causing the subjectivity of the masses to be dominated by an alienated reified force, and their status as historical subjects to be systematically dissolved and distorted. Under the influence of the seemingly objective and neutral commodity exchange relations woven by the capitalist mode of production, the masses lose their subjectivity as creators of history and become “silent” objects ruled by their own creations. Therefore, re-examining the Marxist view of the masses requires criticizing and dissolving the illusion of fetishism and restoring the true agency of the masses as subjects of historical practice. This is not a simple awakening of consciousness but a reconstruction, within the practical framework of historical materialism, of the generativity of intersubjectivity — that is, in the common practice of transforming the world, the masses continuously break the shackles of the logic of reification caused by fetishism, dynamically generate their subjective consciousness and establish their historical status through complex social interactions, and ultimately become the true conscious subjects of history in the process of liberating themselves. This dialectical elevation from the dissolution of fetishism to the construction of intersubjectivity is not only a contemporary interpretation of the philosophical foundation of the Marxist view of the masses but also an important path to break the modern illusion of commodity fetishism and enable the masses to move from being concealed objects to self-determining, interactively constructed subjects.

历史唯物主义认为，人民群众是创造历史的真正主体，是推动历史发展的根本动力。然而，在资本主义生产方式的支配下，这一真理被商品拜物教深度遮蔽。拜物教并非简单的认识迷误，而是资本主义社会关系的必然呈现——商品交换中人与人的真实社会关系被物与物的虚幻关系所掩盖和取代，致使人民群众的主体性被异己的物化力量统治，其作为历史主体的地位遭到系统性消解和扭曲。在资本主义生产方式所编织的、看似客观中立的商品交换关系影响下，人民群众丧失了历史创造者的主体性，沦为自身造物统治下的“无声”客体。因此，重新审视马克思主义群众观，必须批判和消解拜物教幻象，恢复群众作为历史实践主体的真正能动性。这并非简单的意识觉醒，而是要在历史唯物主义的实践框架中重构一种主体间性的生成性，即群众在改造世界的共同实践中，不断打破拜物教所导致的物化逻辑桎梏，在复杂的社会互动中动态生成其主体意识、确立其历史地位，最终在解放自身的过程中成为历史的真正自觉主体。这一从拜物教消解到主体间性建构的辩证提升，不仅是对马克思主义群众观哲学根基的当代阐释，也是破除商品拜物教这一现代性幻象，使群众从被遮蔽的客体走向自为的、交互建构的主体的重要路径。

The uniqueness of the capitalist mode of production lies in its mysterious transformation of social relations between people into cold relations between things. This is the core secret of commodity fetishism. The terrifying aspect of this secret lies not only in its concealment but also in its having become the unconscious psychological structure of modern people. We live in a world piled high with commodities, yet we rarely ask what human relations are hidden behind these commodities. Once the product of labor becomes a commodity, the social nature of the human labor condensed in it seems to become an inherent characteristic of the commodity itself. Thus, the law of value, like an “invisible hand,” dominates production and exchange, while the living laborers who are the creators of value are ruthlessly abstracted.

资本主义生产方式的独特之处在于，它将人与人之间的社会关系，神秘地转化为物与物之间的冰冷关系。这便是商品拜物教的核心秘密。这个秘密的可怕之处不仅在于它的隐蔽性，更在于它已经成为现代人无意识的心理结构。我们生活在一个商品堆积如山的世界里，却很少追问这些商品背后隐藏着怎样的人类关系。劳动产品一旦成为商品，其身上凝聚的人类劳动的社会性，便仿佛成了商品本身固有的特性。于是，价值规律像一只“看不见的手”，支配着生产与交换，而作为价值创造者的活生生的劳动者，却被无情地抽象化了。

This process of abstraction has multiple dimensions. In the direct production process, laborers are reduced to a variable in the production function, and their labor is quantified into abstract labor that can be compared with one another. In the sphere of exchange, relations between people are concealed by relations between things, and social relations are alienated into commodity relations. In the sphere of consumption, people’s real needs are distorted into an endless pursuit of commodities, and use value is suppressed by exchange value. This all-encompassing process of reification constitutes the basic characteristic of modern capitalist society. Under the magic of fetishism, laborers are first alienated into quantifiable labor-power commodities on the production line. This alienation is manifested not only at the economic level but also penetrates deeply into human consciousness. Laborers no longer see themselves as masters of production but as commodities that must constantly sell their labor-power. This self-commodifying consciousness is the most successful ideological effect of fetishism. Second, social relations are reified; the rich connections between people are simplified into cold monetary transactions and ruthless market laws. The most precious human emotional connections — family affection, friendship, love — are all inevitably eroded by the logic of commodities. The final result is that history itself presents the illusion of being subjectless, as if history were merely the self-unfolding of the logic of capital, rather than the product of the practical activities of the masses. This effectively denies the possibility of humanity creating history. Historical materialism thus reveals a profound paradox: the true subjects who create history are concealed and dissolved in the enormous illusion of their own creations, becoming the silent majority, becoming concealed objects. This loss of subjectivity is not accidental but an inevitable result of the capitalist mode of production.

这种抽象化过程具有多重维度。在直接生产过程中，劳动者被简化为生产函数中的一个变量，其劳动被量化为可以相互比较的抽象劳动。在交换领域，人与人之间的关系被物与物之间的关系掩盖，社会关系被异化为商品关系。在消费领域，人的真实需求被扭曲为对商品的无限追逐，使用价值被交换价值所压制。这种全方位的物化过程，构成了现代资本主义社会的基本特征。在拜物教的魔力下，劳动者首先被异化为生产线上可计量的劳动力商品，这种异化不仅表现在经济层面，更深刻地渗透到人的意识之中。劳动者不再将自己视为生产的主人，而是将自己视为必须不断出售劳动力的商品。这种自我商品化的意识，是拜物教最成功的意识形态效果。其次，社会关系被物化，人与人之间的丰富联系被简化为冷酷的金钱交易和冰冷的市场法则。亲情、友情、爱情等人类最珍贵的情感联系，都不可避免地受到商品逻辑的侵蚀。最后的结果是，历史本身呈现出无主体的假象，历史好像只是资本逻辑的自我展开，而非群众实践活动的产物。这实际上否认了人类创造历史的可能性。历史唯物主义就此揭开了一个深刻悖论：创造历史的真正主体，却在自身创造物的巨大幻象中被遮蔽、被消解，成为沉默的大多数，成为被遮蔽的客体。这种主体性的沦丧不是偶然的，而是资本主义生产方式的必然结果。

Historical materialism not only reveals the delusion of fetishism but also points to the real path for its dissolution. Fetishism is rooted in specific social relations of production — capitalist private ownership and generalized commodity production. Therefore, to dissolve fetishism, it is absolutely impossible to rely solely on pure critique in the ideological sphere; one must penetrate to the material basis on which it depends for survival. The commodity, as the economic cell of capitalist society, contains the contradictions between use value and value, concrete labor and abstract labor, and private labor and social labor. These contradictions achieve a relatively unified expression in the form of money but are continuously intensified in the movement of capital. When labor-power itself becomes a commodity, these contradictions develop to a new height: on the one hand, workers must sell their labor-power as a commodity to survive; on the other hand, capital must constantly purchase labor-power to achieve valorization. This means that the restoration of the subjectivity of the masses presupposes breaking the rule of the logic of capital and transforming the relations of production that produce fetishism themselves. The revolutionary practice of the proletariat, as the “practice of the masses,” aims to abolish private ownership and establish a “community of free individuals.” This practice is not an event accomplished overnight but a long historical process. In this process, the masses must not only overthrow the old relations of production but also create new forms of social interaction. It is precisely in this collective practical activity of transforming the world that the masses can pierce the illusion of fetishism and re-establish their status as creators of history. The subjectivity of the masses does not arise out of nothing but is gradually formed on the basis of the material conditions created by the development of capitalism and in the practice of class struggle.

历史唯物主义不仅揭示了拜物教的迷障，更指出了消解它的现实途径。拜物教根植于特定的社会生产关系——资本主义私有制及普遍化的商品生产。因此，要消解拜物教，绝不能仅仅依靠思想领域的纯粹批判就能完成，必须深入到其赖以生存的物质基础。商品作为资本主义社会的经济细胞，包含着使用价值与价值、具体劳动与抽象劳动、私人劳动与社会劳动的矛盾。这些矛盾在货币形式中获得了相对统一的表现，但又在资本的运动中不断激化。当劳动力本身成为商品时，这些矛盾就发展到了一个新高度：一方面，工人必须将自己的劳动力作为商品出售才能生存；另一方面，资本必须不断购买劳动力才能实现增殖。这意味着，群众主体性的复归，前提在于打破资本逻辑的统治，变革那生产出拜物教的生产关系本身。无产阶级的革命实践，作为“群众的实践”，其目标是消灭私有制，建立“自由人联合体”。这种实践不是一蹴而就的事件，而是一个长期的历史过程。在这一过程中，群众不仅要推翻旧的生产关系，还要创造出新的社会交往形式。正是在这种集体性的、改造世界的实践活动中，群众才得以戳破拜物教的幻象，重新确立自身作为历史创造者的地位。群众的主体性不是凭空产生的，而是在资本主义发展所创造的物质条件基础上，在阶级斗争的实践中逐步形成的。

The dissolution of fetishism clears the obstacles for the emergence of the masses. The profundity of the Marxist view of the masses also lies in its inherent inclusion of the dimension of intersubjectivity. In the community of free individuals that has sublated the reified relations of capitalism, the masses are no longer an abstract, undifferentiated whole but a community composed of countless freely developing individuals. The relations between these individuals are no longer alienated and reified but are based on the intersubjective free association and cooperation founded on the common ownership of the means of production. This intersubjectivity is the internal soil and growth space for the true realization of the subjectivity of the masses, and it contains three core dimensions. The first is the dimension of equal mutual recognition. Here, each individual, as an autonomous subject, receives sincere recognition from the collective and others for their free development and life value. The second is the dimension of co-generative practice. Common life and labor are based on voluntary, conscious, cooperative, and mutually supportive foundations, with no one coercing anyone else. The third is the dimension of co-construction. The form and goals of the community are continuously adjusted and jointly constructed (generated) through the daily interactions of free individuals. This generative characteristic keeps the community open and dynamic, avoiding rigidity and oppression. The three dimensions of intersubjectivity do not exist in isolation but interpenetrate and mutually reinforce each other. Equal mutual recognition constitutes the ethical foundation of intersubjective interaction; concrete practical interaction creates the real soil for equal mutual recognition; and co-construction is the dynamic realization of the first two dimensions in the historical process. This concept of intersubjectivity breaks the binary opposition between traditional collectivism and individualism, providing a new perspective for understanding social relations. It differs both from the totalitarian tendency to dissolve the individual into the collective and from the liberal tendency to atomize society, instead pursuing the dialectical unity between the individual and the community. The Marxist view of the masses has never aimed to mold the masses into an abstract concept that eliminates individuality. On the contrary, it depicts a dynamic process of construction based on free association, full of vitality. The true power of the masses comes from the creative synergy unleashed by countless independent individuals in equal cooperation. This synergy transcends simple quantitative accumulation and gives rise to a qualitative leap in the interaction of subjects. It can be said that intersubjectivity endows the subjectivity of the masses with soul and vitality.

对拜物教的消解，为群众的出场扫清了障碍。马克思主义群众观的深刻性，还在于它内在地蕴含了主体间性的维度。在扬弃了资本主义物化关系的自由人联合体中，群众不再是抽象的、无差别的整体，而是由无数自由发展的个体组成的联合体。这些个体之间的关系，不再是异己的、物化的，而是建立在共同占有生产资料基础之上的主体间的自由联合与协作。这种主体间性是群众主体性真正落地的内在土壤和生长空间，它包含三个核心维度。首先是平等互认的维度。在这里，每个个体作为自主的主体，其自由发展和生命价值，获得集体和他者的真诚认可。其次是共生实践的维度。共同的生活劳作建立在自愿自觉、合作互助的基础上，没有谁强迫谁。最后是共同生成的维度。共同体的形态与目标，是在自由个体的日常互动中不断磨合、共同建构（生成）的。这种生成性特征使共同体保持开放和活力，避免僵化和压制。主体间性的三个维度并非孤立存在，而是彼此渗透、相互成就。平等互认构成主体交往的伦理基石，具体的交往实践又为平等互认创造了现实土壤，共同生成则是前两个维度在历史过程中的动态实现。这种主体间性概念打破了传统集体主义与个人主义的二元对立，为我们理解社会关系提供了全新视角。它既不同于将个人消解在集体中的极权主义倾向，也有别于将社会原子化的自由主义倾向，而是追求个体与共同体之间的辩证统一。马克思主义群众观从来不是要把群众塑造成一个消弭个性的抽象概念。恰恰相反，它描绘的是一种建立在自由联合基础上的、充满活力的动态建构过程。群众的真正力量来源于无数独立个体在平等协作中迸发的创造性合力。这种合力超越了简单的数量叠加，而在主体互动中催生出质的飞跃。可以说，主体间性赋予群众主体性以灵魂与生命力。

Re-examining the Marxist view of the masses, we see a clear dialectical path: from the dissolution of fetishism (breaking through the mirage of material appearances, revealing the masses’ concealed status as historical subjects), to the practical generation of subjectivity (in the revolutionary practice of transforming relations of production, the masses establish themselves in reality), and then to the inner construction of intersubjectivity (in the free association, the masses, as free individuals, become a creative force of equal cooperation and co-generation). This is a continuous, dynamic process of liberation and development. The “masses” are not a fixed, static concept; they are a historical force that is constantly generated and developed in the struggle against oppressive structures, the overcoming of their own alienation, and the construction of equal cooperative relations. With the dissolution of fetishism, the subjectivity of the masses can begin to sprout; in the construction of intersubjectivity, the power of the masses truly moves toward clarity and liberation. The vitality of the Marxist view of the masses lies precisely in this future-oriented, never-ceasing movement of generation. It is like a lightning bolt that cuts through the fetishism of capital, proclaiming the infinite possibility of humanity jointly creating its own history. In today’s society, this theoretical legacy still shines with the light of critique and the hope of liberation.

重审马克思主义群众观，我们看到一条清晰的辩证路径：从拜物教的消解（破除物象迷障，揭示群众被遮蔽的历史主体地位），到主体性的实践生成（在变革生产关系的革命实践中，群众现实地确立自身），再到主体间性的内在建构（在自由联合体中，群众作为自由个体间平等协作、共同生成的创造性力量）。这是一个持续的、动态的解放和发展进程。“群众”并非一个凝固的静止的概念，它是在对抗压迫性结构、克服自身异化、建构平等协作关系中不断生成、发展的历史性力量。随着拜物教的消解，群众主体性才得以萌发；在主体间性的建构中，群众的力量才真正走向澄明与解放。马克思主义群众观的生命力正在于这种指向未来、永不停歇的生成性运动，它如同一道划破资本拜物教的闪电，昭示着人类共同创造自身历史的无限可能。在当今社会，这一理论遗产依然闪耀着批判的光芒和解放的希望。

(This article is a phased result of the National Social Science Fund Youth Project “A Historical Investigation of the Chinese Communist Party’s Firm Political Beliefs” [21CKS005].)

（本文系国家社科基金青年项目“中国共产党坚定政治信仰的历史考察”（21CKS005）阶段性成果）

(The author is a doctoral student at the School of Marxism, Dalian University of Technology.)

（作者系大连理工大学马克思主义学院博士研究生）

Online editor: Tongxin

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